Dr. Tommaso Casalini

Resume

• Apr.2014 - now: Post-Doctoral Fellow at Prof. Massimo Morbidelli group, ETH Zuerich, Switzerland;
• Jan.2013 - Jan.2014: Post-Doctoral Fellow at CFA lab, Politecnico di Milano, Italy;
• 2010 - 2012: Philosophiae doctor (Ph.D.) cum laude in Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, XXV cycle, with the thesis "Molecular modelling of transport phenomena in hydrogels", Advisors: Prof. C. Cavallotti and Dr. G. Perale, Tutor: Prof. M. Masi;
• Mar.2010: Qualified to industrial engineering profession;
• 2007 - 2009: Master degree in Chemical Engineering (mark 110/110 cum laude) at Politecnico di Milano with the thesis "Suture threads with analgesic effects", Advisors: Prof. M. Masi and Dr. G. Perale;
• 2004 - 2007: Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering (mark 92/110);
• 26.Jul.1985: Born in Milan, Italy;

Research Interest

• Polymer reaction engineering (mathematical modeling of multiphase reactors);
• Chemical reaction engineering (modeling, simulation and optimization of reactors in close collaboration with industrial partners);
• Multiscale modeling of drug delivery devices;
• Molecular dynamics simulations in collaboration with experimental partners: simulation of amphiphilic polymers in solution, colloidal systems (functionalized polymeric nanoparticles) and protein aggregation;
• Application of enhanced sampling methods (metadynamics simulations);

Publications

• Luciani P., de Mendoza A. E.-H., Casalini T., Lang S., Atrott K., Spalinger M. R., Frey-Wagner I., Schumacher J., Leroux J.-C. and Rogles G., "Gastroresistant oral peptide for fluorescence imaging of colonic inflammation", in resubmission to Journal of Controlled Release;
• Casalini T., Visscher F., Janssen E., Bertola F., Storti G. and Morbidelli M., "Modeling of Polyolefin Polymerization in Semibatch Slurry Reactors: Experiments and Simulations", Macromolecular Reaction Engineering, Volume 11, Issue 1, February 2017;
• Kim J.A., Casalini T., Brambilla D. and Leroux J.-C., "LRP-1 targeting peptide delivers β-secretase inhibitor to neurons in vitro with limited efficiency", Scientific Reports, Volume 6, 29 semptember 2016, 34297;
• Owczarz M., Casalini T., Motta A. C., Morbidelli M. and Arosio P., "Contribution of Electrostatics in the Fibril Stability of a Model Ionic-Complementary Peptide", Biomacromolecules, 2015, 16, 3792 - 3801;
• Colombo C., Gatti S., Ferrari R., Casalini T., Cuccato D., Morosi L., Zucchetti M. and Moscatelli D., "Self-assembling amphiphilic PEGylated block copolymers obtained through RAFT polymerization for drug delivery applications", Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2016, 133, 43084;
• Casalini T.*, Rossi F., Lazzari S., Perale G. and Masi M., "Mathematical Modeling of PLGA Microparticles: from Polymer Degradation to Drug Release", Molecular Pharmaceutics, 2014, 11 (11), 4036 - 4048;
• Rossi F., Ferrari R., Papa S., Moscatelli D., Casalini T., Forloni G., Perale G., Veglianese P., “Tunable hydrogel – nanoparticles release system for sustained combination therapies in the spinal cord”, Colloids and Surface B: Biointerfaces, 2013, 108(1), 169 – 177.
• Casalini T., Rossi F., Raffa E., Masi M., Perale G., “Bioresorbable polymer coated drug eluting stent: a model study”, Molecular Pharmaceutics, 2012, 9(7): 1898-1910;
• Casalini T., Masi M., Perale G., “Drug eluting sutures: a model for in vivo estimations”, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2012, 429: 148-157;
• Casalini T., Salvalaglio M., Perale G., Masi M., Cavallotti C., “Diffusion and aggregation of sodium fluorescein in aqueous solutions”, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2011, 115: 12896-12904;
• Rossi F., Casalini T., Santoro M., Mele A., Perale G., “Methylprednisolone Diffusivity in Agar-Carbomer Based Hydrogel: a Promising Tool for Local Drug Delivery”, Chemical Papers, 2011, 65(6): 903-908;
• Casalini T., Rossi F., Santoro M., Perale G., “Structural characterization of PLLA and PGA oligomers in water”, International Journal of Molecular Science, 2011, 12(6): 3857-3870;
• Rossi F., Santoro M., Casalini T., Perale G., “Characterization and Degradation behavior of Agar – Carbomer hydrogels for drug delivery applications: solute effect”, International Journal of Molecular Science, 2011, 12(6): 3394-3408;
• Rossi F., Santoro M., Casalini T., Perale G., “Synthesis and characterization of lanthanum bonded Agar Carbomer hydrogel: a promising tool for biomedical research”, Journal of Rare Earths, 2011, 29(3): 259-264;
• Perale G., Casalini T., Barri V., Muller M., Maccagnan S., Masi M., “Lidocaine release from polycaprolactone threads”, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2010, 117(6): 3610-3614;

Isi Conference Proceedings

• Casalini T., Rossi F., Torriani P., Masi M., Veglianese P., Perale G., “Mathematical modelling of in vivo drug release from hydrogels for spinal cord injury treatment”, European Cells and Materials, 2012, 23, Suppl 5: 33;

Abstracts or Posters presented at International Conferences

• Casalini T., Jaquet B., Pavan G.M. and Morbidelli M. "The counter-
• intuitive destabilizing effect of surfactant addition in a dispersion of polymer-brushed particles", poster presentation at Swiss Chemical Society Fall meeting, 15 september 2016, Zurich (Switzerland);
• Casalini T., Visscher F., Tamaddoni M., Bertola F., Storti G. and Morbidelli M. "Residence time distribution effects in slurry phase catalytic ethylene polymerization", oral presentation at Polymer Reaction Engineering (PRE) Hamburg, 17 - 20 May 2016, Hamburg (Germany);
• Casalini T., Perale G., Masi M., Cavallotti C. “Molecular dynamics investigation of Agar – Carbomer hydrogels” poster presentation to eSSENCE workshop in Multiscale material modeling 2012, 7-8 June, Uppsala (Sweden);
• Rossi F., Casalini T., Raffa E., Masi M., Perale G. “Bioresorbable polymer coated drug eluting stent: a model study” poster presentation to 9th World Biomaterials Congress 2012, 1-5 June, Chengdu (China);
• Casalini T., Masi M., Perale G., “Drug eluting sutures: a model for in vivo estimations” poster presentation to 9th World Biomaterials Congress 2012, 1-5 June, Chengdu (China);
• Casalini T., Rossi F., Torriani P., Masi M., Veglianese P., Perale G., “Mathematical modelling of vivo drug release from hydrogels for spinal cord injuries treatment” poster presentation to 5th Annual Meeting of the Scandinavian Society for Biomaterials 2012, 8-9 May, Uppsala (Sweden);

Conferences Proceedings

• Perale G., Veglianese P., Rossi F., Peviani M., Llupi D., Casalini T., Micotti E., Masi M., “A Novel Hydrogel-Based System As A Flexible Tool For Spinal Cord Injury Repair Strategies”, 23rd European Conference on Biomaterials 2010, 11–15 September, Tampere (Finland);
• Perale G., Casalini T., Barri V., Muller M., Maccagnan S., Masi M., “Lidocaine eluting sutures: from device design to experimental production”, AES-ATEMA 2009 – Fourth International Conference on Advances and Trends in Engineering Materials and their Applications, 1–4 September. Hamburg (Germany);
• Hugony F., Migliavacca G., Bertini S., Casalini T., Faravelli T., Ranzi E., “Structural characterization of coals and coals’ pyrolysis products”, 32nd Meeting on Combustion, Naples, 26 – 28 April 2009.

Book Chapters

• T. Casalini, "Bioresorbability of polymers: chemistry, mechanism and modeling" in Perale G. and Hilborn J., Bioresorbable Polymers for Biomedical Applications, Cambridge, Woodhead, Chapter 3, ISBN 978-0-08-100262-9
• T. Casalini, G. Perale “Types of biodegradable polymers” in Jenkins M., and Overend L., Durability and reliability of medical polymers, Cambridge, Woodhead, Chapter 1; ISBN 978 1 84569 929 1 (2012)
• T. Casalini, G. Perale “Processing of bioresorbable polymers” in Jenkins M., and Overend L., Durability and reliability of medical polymers, Cambridge, Woodhead, Chapter 3; ISBN 978 1 84569 929 1 (2012)

External Collaborations

• Prof. J.-C. Leroux (ETH Zurich);
• Prof P. Luciani (University of Jena);
• Prof. A. Kilbinger (University of Fribourg);
• Prof. A. Mele, Prof. D. Moscatelli (Politecnico di Milano, Italy);
• Dr. O. P. Varghese (Uppsala Universitet, Sweden);